Red bugs on your sps? Share your exp.

Just my thoughts were if you were moving "noninfected' rock, corals and water from the old to the new there may still be a chance of them egtting in there. I would still think that there will be some in other areas than the few more heavily infected corals. And if any of them make it in there and the corals are a little stressed from the move that may give them a chance to infect those as well.

It is one of my concerns as well because there is a small chance I may move so the tank will go too. But I really don't want to do it because seemingly "fingers crossed" my bug population has seemed to have decreased other than one acro lopries? that is very heavily infected.

Shawn
 
I realize there is no guarantee but feel like I have to try something to minimize. Especially since tearing it down anyway.
 
I am confident you can get away w/ all the rock and inverts and corals in the main tank and as long as there are no acroporas in the main system, the bugs will have no host to survive on. For true quarantine, I wouldn't even have a Qtank close to the main tank and even use different maintenance equipment for it, this is to avoid contamination of any kind, not just bugs. How do you plan to "rid" your acros of the copepods?
 
Ultra Life Red Slime Remover removed Red bugs


I don't know if this is a coincidence or not. But I was having a problem with Red Slime in my SPS 120 gallon tank. So I took the plunge and purchased Ultra Life's red slime remover. Well it kind of created a red tide in my tank with the massive die off of red slime. Stressed my corals for a couple of days. When it was all over I happened to notice that there were no more red bugs on my Acropora Microthalma. I had several frags that were totally infested with the little buggers.

I'm not sure if this is just a natural cycle for the little buggers and they'll be back. Or if somehow the Red Slime remover enabled the corals to over power the tiny mites.

It didn't seem to hurt my micro fauna, in fact it increased it in my algae scrubber.

So I don't know, for some reason the dreaded red bugs are gone, coincidentally or not it seemed to happen after I treated my tank with the red slime/bug remover :)

Maybe the chemistry in the tank during the red slime remover was not hospitable to the bugs. I've looked really close with a magnifying glass and do not see and bug action.

I don't know if this treatment would work if you didn't have red slime. I can say that the product definately removes red slime pronto. But you have to be prepared to handle the die off as it can quickly overload your system.

I'll keep you posted as to whether the bugs return or not.


Jason
 
Jason,

Bill ( SawcJack00 ) had the same experience with Chemi-clean ( competitor to Red Slime Remover ).

Although it worked for him it is not an absolute and definately adds some additional risks.

I tried to replicate in my tank and did see a reduction but never totally erradicated. Within 4 weeks they were right back at the same or higher levels.

I recently upgraded tanks and plan to quarantine the bug infested corals in a pair of 40g breeders with the same lighting as the main tank. I will try to dose again. Worst case I loose only the infested corals ( about 20 in total ) which at this point is not a big deal to me because they really look horrible and absent of all color...
 
David,

I agree with you that when those Red Bugs get a grip on a coral they do stress it to the point where it seems that the coral is just hanging on and no color.


It has been about about two weeks and no sign of the little buggers. My dose for the Ultralife Product was seven scoops or enough for 105 gallons of water in my 120 gallon tank. Which was probably a little heavy since I have a bunch of live rock ect.


I don't know why the Red slime remover would remove the Red bugs. Maybe it caused the coral to slime up and temporarily throw off the bugs. But I kind of believe that those things are lurking somewhere just ready to come out, kind of like the aids virus.

Let me know how it works. Remember Ultralife Red slime remover removes red bugs.

Sincerely,


Jason
 
Jason,

No clue why.

Definately stay optimistic, For Bill ( Sawcjack00 ) it has been several months now with still no signs of them reoccurring. You can look back on previous pages of this thread to see the timestamp of his post. I didn't think to ask if he might have overdosed a little but I followed his actions ( except dosage because different size tanks ). He did a dose with lights on. 48 hours later did a second dose with lights off. I may have been a little more conservative with my dosage than he was.

Once they are isolated in the 40g I may to an extra scoop or something. I don't really have much to loose IMO......
 
Just to update on my situation and say that they seem to have left the system as quicly as they entered. A few corals had them on but no harm was done. A single blue tip colony did loose alot of colour but after a couple of months started re-gaining it's brown zooxanthellae colour and the tips went blue again.
 
Dave is correct that I used the Chemi-clean, and suddenly there were no more bugs. it did stress my corals out, but they recovered quickly, and the bugs were gone. That was almost 3 months ago, and there are no bugs as of today. Could have been coincidence. I did dose for 170 gallons on my system which I estimate to hold about that much water with sump and refugium. My corals look 100% better than they did when they were covered with buggies:D
 
Saw Jack,

My experience was exactly the same using Ultralife Red Slime remover. My corals were definately stressed no doubt about it. In fact one of my wild caught colonies bleached in a couple of branches. Everything made it though, sure is nice not having those red bugs after about four weeks.

Any ideals as to why Red Slime remover would remove red bugs?

Jason
 
I have no clue. i would say that it should only be tried as a last resort. Some people have reported having these bugs for a long time with no ill effects so it would not be in their tanks best interest to do this. But if you're corals are fading away, you might give it a try.
 
Red Bugs

Red Bugs

Have you guys tried putting blue legged hermits in your tanks? How about different types of shrimp? Each of these may eat those bugs.
 
Red slime remover

Red slime remover

I have a question for the people who dosed with the slime removers. How soon after intial dosing of the chemical did you notice that the bugs were gone? Was it immediate? The next day? A week later? Did you require one or 2 doses?

Just curious ...
 
Hi Mia,

I did just one dose at recommended level for Ultra Life Red Slime remover. I wasn't looking for it to remove the Red Bugs so I can't say for sure how long it took. But about a week later I noticed my microthalma was actually open. I looked closer and saw no bugs. It's been around four weeks with no sign of the little buggers.

For me the red slime remover made my protein skimmer go like mad. So you'll have to cut back your skimmer a little bit. Also notice red slime remover will stress your corals, it just will. If your corals are established and well adapted they'll pull through not problem. If there new and still adapting to your tank you can have some bleaching, which is what happened to one of my wild caught colonies that had only been in my tank about a month.

Don't forget to do a water change after about three or four days to help get the stuff out of your water. I did about twenty to thirty percent water change.

Is it worth it? Depends what the level of infestation is in your tank and how much you care about the corals that are infested. For me it was my Mircrothalma and another frag I got from Dr. Mac. So I probably wouldn't do it. I did it because of red slime. But if you have five or six colonies that you really like and your tank is doing fine otherwise it probably is worth the gamble. I just can't imagine doing two doses of the stuff, man it really works, and I had a pretty bad red slime problem.

I still would like to know by what process it gets rid of the Red Bugs. The Red Slime remover didn't hurt any other of my microfauna. In fact is seemed to increase it slightly after dosing.


Sincerely,



Jason
 
Ok,
I have read almost every thread out here on this subject. I alos have the little bugs on a frag of acro that I purchased over 3 months ago. The color has slowly began to fade however the base is still spreading outwards with lots of color. I am not sure what type of acro it is since I am fairly new in the reef tank arena. It is 2 colored. Pink and green. It does not have large polyps on it so it would be safe to say that it is and SPS and not an LPS. Here is my dilemma. I have only 2 pieces of acropora and both are about 1 to 2 inch frags. All my other corals are soft. The fish I have are: 1 Purple Tang, 2 Sebea Clowns, 1 Royal Gramma, 1 Mandarin, 1 Dwarf Lionfish. I am considering adding a Yellow Clown Goby to combat against these critters. My tank is a 55 gallon aquarium and in less than 2 weeks I will be moving everything over to a 75 gallon with a 20 gallon sump. What I want to know is: One, would I be overloading my current setup with the new addition of this fish? And 2, would he be alright even though he wouldn't have a host coral to hide in. I do have a 100lbs. Fiji LR in my tank that is setup with plenty of places for him to hide.

Thanks,
Bill
 
I think the Clown Goby wouldn't last 5 minutes in the tank with your dwarf lion. I would just not add the SPS Frags to your new tank. Or try fresh water dipping them for a minute to avoid them passing on the bugs. Then look at them in a dish under a microscope or magnifying glass. If you still see bugs repeat the process in a few days. I have heard good results from a friend on SW OOmed dips for a couple of minutes at 2X the recommended dosage. Says the buggers go crazy and jump off the frag. Trick is to irritate/kill the bug without irritating the coral to the point of causing it's demise.

Hope this helps

Jake
 
Jake,
He would have to be awful small in order for the Dwarf to make a meal out of him. I read that they are about 2 inches in size. Also in less they only get as big around than a pencil he should be alright. My Dwarf Lionfish is truly a dwarf lionfish. He is as big as he is going to get. Every bit of 3 inches if he is lucky. He sure does eat up the large rosie red goldfish I feed him though. I due plan on getting rid of him when I move over to the 75 gallon. He is a neat fish, but to much of a pain to take care. Plus since he is primarily nocturnal I don't see him until the lights go out. Occasionally he does venture out when the lights are on, but very rarely.

Thanks for the suggestion though. I may just wait and try the dips first.


Bill
 
Clown gobies are real small. Head to tail lucky to be a full inch.

Correct me if I am wrong but I thought they don't make Oomed anymore. If so where to get it..... It certainly would be worth a try if I don't have to dose the whole tank.......
 
Results and a question

Results and a question

Well, I tried the RSR by Ultralife as I was deparate to be rid of the buggies. Nothing was stressed as I made sure the water was well oxygenated despite the skimmer being turned off. Well, the acros were loving it...something must have been released into the water they wanted as I have never seen polyp extension like that before. It even got rid of a nuisance algae I had (looked like a black brillo pad on some rocks)...but, it didn't get rid of the bugs :( I even did 2 dosages as it looked like nothing was even noticing the first dose.

So I am now wondering what to do now. Here is the situation. I have 45 types of sps (about 15 colonies the rest frags or small colonies). I notice there are 3 colonies the bugs really favor (and maybe 3 frags). I can usually sight about 25 bugs at least at any time on them. They are Acropora humilis. The oldest colony I have is almost white from bug action...the other 2 are probably destined for the same ending. Then I have some frags/colonies where I only see one or two on at a time, these seem unaffected. Then I have some (millepora, stags, tables) that have none on them.

I just did an upgrade from a 180 to a 360 g tank. I still have the 180 running and I have an extra skimmer and 1 400watt MH I can use.

So here's my thoughts: Should I remove the heavily infected colonies and put them in the 180 for quarantine and try different methods of getting rid of the bugs? I am wondering if the colonies that exist in the 360 with minimal bugs will just lose the bugs gradually as they are not the most favorable host.
Or should I just let nature take its course as the bugs may just remain in small numbers in the tank at all times? All unaffected acros are growing nicely and all other corals inthe tank are thriving. These things just make me so mad as there are some corals I just cannot put into my reef, and just knowing they are in there makes looking at my reef less enjoyable :(

Does anyone have any suggestions?
TIA
 
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